What’s the difference between America's most messed up celebs and Britain’s reigning king of the tabloids?

If you said anything about Pete Doherty managing to get out of a car with his knickers on, well, uh, let’s not go there. In truth, the glaring difference between the Britney-Paris-Lindsay trio and England’s little darling Pete Doherty is just one small thing: talent. Unfortunately, a spike in your vein tends to contribute negatively to any amount of genius. So it is with that, and with expectations set pretty high, I have to say that Shotter's Nation fails to deliver. But even though Doherty’s so smacked out that the most whacked supermodel can no longer stand his company, he puts out an album that shames much of what's streaming on mainstream pop radio.

The 'Shambles’ 2005 debut, Down in Albion, was raw, rough and fun — who thought the lyric "F--k forever, if you don't mind" would become so catchy? While Shotter's is great on its own, it sounds like the flip side of Albion, but without the standout single. Shotter's opens with much potential as “Carry on Up the Morning” sets the bar pretty high. What comes after is somewhere around the same height, but while there's not much wrong with that, I keep waiting for Doherty to deliver the album that's going to forever change music. He's got it in him; I just wish he would get his shit together. (Astralwerks)